This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Handbook of Forensic Psychiatric Practice in Capital Cases


defendant the belief – however strongly asserted at the outset by the assessor – that the assessor is not ‘being a doctor’.


An even more fundamental ethical counter to the forensicist alibi, however, lies in the fact that the doctor is still utilising clinical techniques which are designed for, and originate in, the pursuit of human welfare by way of treatment. Tat is, s/he is applying medical techniques to an individual where the result can be ‘maleficent’.


Te crucial concern about the forensicist alibi, however, is that ‘pretending’ you are not being a doctor is ethically more dangerous than acknowledging that you are being one, and then dealing with, and coping with the profound ethical dilemmas that this raises in assessing defendants. Once again, ethical insight offers greatest ethical protection.


Proximity to execution


As suggested (above) some doctors adopt an approach to involvement in capital trials based upon ‘how proximate’ to execution per se is their posited involvement, in terms of legal stage?


Hence, a doctor may be prepared to assess a suspect in a murder inquiry for his ‘competence to be interviewed’, or to assess a defendant for his ‘fitness to plead’, or whether he has available to him a ‘mental condition defence’, yet be unprepared to be involved in one or more stages that apply after conviction.


Sentencing


Where a court is considering whether to impose the discretionary death penalty, it will necessarily be required that there be psychiatric and/or psychological assessment (see Chapter 12).


Here there is the possibility of ‘doing harm’ to a defendant; however, only through not finding there to be psychiatrically originating mitigating factors present in the defendant. For a doctor instructed by the defence or prosecution, therefore, his or her causing of harm can arise only through honestly finding no mitigating psychiatric factors, in terms of the test of ‘beyond reformation’, or perhaps also in terms of the test of ‘the worst of the worst’ (again see Chapter 12).


What is crucial, therefore, is honesty of clinical assessment and insight into the potential impact of one’s own values, including personal beliefs about the death penalty and its application, on the assessment.


Mercy


Similar considerations apply to psychiatric assessment in relation to the exercise of mercy as to assessment for sentencing, in terms of honest assessment and insight into the potential impact of one’s own attitude to the death penalty.


Competence to be executed


It would be anathema to some doctors to declare a convict fit or competent to be executed, on the basis that it can never be ethically justifiable for a doctor to use their skills in order to facilitate punishment by death.


116


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156